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ii jkioRicAL GiAssie I^wdincs 



F\t$l Battle^ of the Molutioii. 



Edward Everett. 



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HISTORICAL CLASSIC HEADINGS.— M. 8. 

First Battles of the Revolution i 

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EDWARD EVERETT. 



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Biographical Note. 

Edwakd Everett was born in Dorchester, Mass., in 1794. 
He entered Harvard College when he was abont thirteen years 
old, and four years later v/as graduated with the highest honors 
of his class. At twenty he was attracting attention as one of the 
first preachers in Boston. In 1814 he resigned his charge to 
accept the professorship of Greek in Harvard College, and spent 
nearly five years in Europe in preparation for the duties of this 
position. Soon after his return to this country he began a series 
of lectures on the antiquities of Greece, which attracted enthu- 
siastic audiences both in Cambridge and in Boston. 

Mr. Everett had a rare power in throwing a charm about sub- 
jects which are not supposed to possess much interest for the 
uneducated, and he is believed to have laid the foundation for 
that wide-spread interest in popular lectures which has formed 
so marked a feature of our modern educational life. The politi- 
cal career of Mr. Everett began in 1824, and continued through 
ten years of efficient service as a member of Congress. He also 
served for four years as Governor of his native State. 

In 1841, while residing in Florence, he was appointed United 
States Minister to England, and during a critical period in the 
foreign relations of this country he discharged his delicate duties 
with marked ability and success. He became President of Har- 
vard College in 1846, but was obliged to resign after three years^ 
administration owing to the failure of his health. 

It was his privilege to spend the last ten years of his life in a 
service congenial to himself and valuable to his country. With 
the hope of allaying the bitter feeling existing between the North 
and the South, he prepared an Oration on Washington, which he 
delivered on more than one hundred and twenty occasions in all 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 



parts of the country. The proceeds of these addresses, amount- 
ing to more than one hundred thousand dollars, were handed 
over to the Ladies' Mount Vernon Fund xissociation for the pur- 
chase and maintenance of the home of AYashington. 

His last public appearance was at a meeting held in Boston in 
1865, to raise funds for the poor in Savannah, then just taken 
by Gen. Sherman. At that meeting he caught a cold which re- 
sulted in his death January 15, 18G5. His orations and ad- 
dresses have been published in four volumes. 

Mr. Everett united in a rare manner the refined tastes of the 
scholar with a generous sympathy for popular institutions and 
government. Several of his addresses were delivered for the 
benefit of Lyceums whose members were chiefly made up of 
artisans and mechanics, and it has been said that the most eager 
wish of his life had been for the higher education of his country- 
men. His orations are pervaded by a sentiment of exalted pa- 
triotism expressed with all the fervor of a real enthusiast. 

Prof. Felton in the North American Eeview, January, 1837, 
very happily sets forth the chief merit of Mr. Everett's style : 

" The great charm of Mr. Everett's orations consist ... in 
that symmetry and finish which on every page give token of the 
richly endowed and thorough scholar. The natural movements 
of his mind are full of grace, and the most indifi'erent sentence 
which falls from his pen has that simple elegance whicl it is as 
difficult to define as it is easy to perceive." 



Editor's Xote. 

Note. — Several passages in tlie oratiou, chiefly of a personal or local 
character, have been omitted in order to better adapt this selection for use 
in the class-room. 

The "Eve of the Revolution " is selected from the historical sketch of 
Robert Mackenzie, entitled "America." The author is a Scotchman who 
has won some literary distinction, especiall}^ by his "History of the Nine- 
teenth Century." 

The work from which this selection is made aims to present a brief and 
rapid outline of the most important events in the history of this country 
and of Canada. The growth of the spirit of independence in the colouies, 
the struggle between slavery and freedom in the United States and the 
growth of liberal ideas in Canada are made especially prominent. 

This sketch has a particular interest from the fact that it presents in clear 
and bold outline the causes that led up to the war of the Revolution — the 
narrow minded and stubborn policy of the king, and the unstatesmanlike 
conduct of most of the prime ministers and leaders of Parliament. The 
style of the author is terse and pointed. His descriptions of the most im- 
portant events of the period are graphic and presented with a picturesque 
distinctness that makes them admirable studies for the student of history. 

Note.—T\iQ. object of the notes is not simply to furnish a certain amount 
of information biographical and statistical, but to indicate a method of 
historical study. They are intended to emphasize the distinction between 
the reading and 8tudy of history. 




Paul Revere's Ride. 



INTRODUCTION. 



02T THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTIOI^. 



By Robert Mackenzie. 



A CENTURY and a half had passed ^ since the first colony had 
been planted on American soil. The colonists were fast ripening 
into fitness for independence. They had increased with marvel- 
ous rapidity. Europe never ceased to send forth her superfluous 
and needy thousands. America opened wide her hospitable arms 
and gave assurance of liberty and comfort to all who came. The 
thirteen colonies now contained a population of about three 
million. 

They were eminently a trading people, and their foreign com- 
merce was. already large and lucrative. New England built ships 
with the timber of her boundless forests, and sold them to for- 
eign countries. She caught fish and sent them to the West 
Indies. She killed whales and sent the oil to England. New 
York and Pennsylvania produced wheat, which Spain and Por- 
tugal were willing to'buy. Virginia clung to the tobacco-plant, 
which Europe was not then, any more than she is now, wise 
enough to dispense with. The swampy regions of Carolina and 
Georgia produced rice sufficient to supply the European demand. 
As yet cotton does not take any rank in the list of exports. But 
the time is near. Even now Richard Arkwright^ is brooding 
over improvements in the art of spinning cotton. When these 
are perfected the growing of cotton will rise quickly to a suprem- 
acy over all the industrial pursuits. 



' The period which forms the 
subject of this chapter extends from 
1760 to 1775. 



- Richard Arkwright, a native of 
Lancashire, England, invented the 
process of spinning thread by ma- 
chinery in 1 769. 



8 



INTRODUCTION. 



England had not learned to recognize the equality of her 
colonists with her own people. The colonies were understood to 
exist not for their OAvn good so much as for the good of the 
mother country. Even the chimney-sweepers, as Lord Chatham ' 
asserted, might be heard in the streets of London talking boast- 
fully of their subjects in America. Colonies were settlements 
" established in distant parts of the world for the benefit of 
trade." As such they were most consistently treated. The 
Americans could not import direct any article of foreign produc- 
tion. Everything must be landed in England and re-shipped 
thence, that the English merchant might have profit. One ex- 
emption only was allowed from the operation of this law — the 
products of Africa, the unhappy negroes, were conveyed direct 
to America, and every possible encouragement was given to that 
traffic* Notwithstanding the illiberal restrictions of the home 
government, the imports of America before the Eevolution had 
risen almost to the value of three million sterling." 

New England had, very early, established her magnificent sys- 
tem of common schools. For two or three generations these had 
been in full operation. The people of New England were now 
probably the most carefully instructed people in the world. There 
could not be found a p'ferson born in New England unable to read 
and write. It had always been the practice of the Northern 
people to settle in townships or villages tvhere education was 
easily carried to them. In the South it had not been so. There 
the common schools had taken no root. It was impossible 
among a population so scattered. The educational arrangements 
of the South have never been adequate to the necessities of the 
people. 

In the early years of America, the foundations were laid of those 
differences in character and interest which have since produced 



3 William Pitt, the first Eaii of 
Chatlham (1708-1778), was one of the 
greatest of English statesmen and 
orators. He opposed the policy of 
taxing the colonies. 



•^ Bancroft says that three hun- 
dred tliousaud negroes had been im- 
ported by the English before 1776. 

^ How many dollars ? 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

results of such magnitude. The men who peopled the Eastern 
States had to contend with a somewhat severe climate and a 
comparatively sterile soil. These disadvantages imposed upon 
them habits of industry and frugality. Skilled labor alone could 
be of use in their circumstances. They were thus mercifully 
rescued from the curse of slavery — by the absence of temptation, 
it may be, rather than by superiority of virtue. Their simple 
purity of manners remained long uncorrupted. The firm tex- 
ture of mind which upheld them in their early difficulties re- 
mained unenfeebled. Their love of liberty was not perverted into 
a i^assion for supremacy. Among them labor was not degraded 
by becoming the function of a despised race. In New England 
labor has always been honorable. A just-minded, self -relying, 
self-helpij;ig people, vigorous in acting, patient in enduring — it 
was evident from the outset that they, at least, would not dis- 
grace their ancestry. 

The men^f the South were very differently circumstanced. 
Their climate was delicious ; their soil was marvelously fertile ; 
their products were welcome in the markets of the world ; un- 
skilled labor was applicable in the rearing of all their great 
staples.® Slavery, being exceedingly profitable, struck deep roots 
very early. It was easy to grow rich. The colonists found them- 
selves not the employers merely, but the owners of their laborers. 
They became aristocratic in feeling and in manners, resembling 
the picturesque chiefs of old Europe rather than mere prosaic 
growers of tobacco and rice. They had the virtues of chivalry, 
and also its vices. They were generous, open-handed, hos- 
pitable ; but they were haughty and passionate, improvident, 
devoted to pleasure and amusement more than to work of any 
description. Living apart, each on his own plantation, the edu- 
cation of childre^i was frequently imperfect, and the planter 
himself was bereft of that wholesome discipline to mind and to 
temper which residence among equals confers. The two great 

6 Staples — the principal articles produced by a country for export or 
^or use. 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

divisions of States — those in which slavery was profitable, and 
those in which it was unprofitable — were unequally yoked to- 
gether. Their divergence of character and interest continued to 
increase, till it issued in one of the greatest of recorded wars/ 

Up to the year 1764, the Americans cherished a deep rever- 
ence and affection for the mother country. They were proud of 
her great place among the nations. They gloried in the splendor 
of her military achievements ; they copied her manners and her 
fashions. She was in all things their model. They always spoke 
of England as 'Miome." To be an Old England man was to be 
a person of rank and importance among them. They yielded a 
loving obedience to her laws. They were governed, as Benjamin 
Franklin stated it, at the expense of a little pen and ink. When 
money was asked from their Assemblies, it was given without 
grudge. " They were led by a thread," — such was their love for 
the land which gave them birth. 

Ten or twelve years came and went. A marvelous change has 
passed upon the temper of the American people. They have 
bound themselves by great oaths to use no article of English 
manufacture — to engage in no transaction which can put a shilling 
into any English pocket. They have formed ^' the inconvenient 
habit of carting," — that is, of tarring and feathering and dragging 
through the streets such persons as avow friendship for the Eng- 
lish Government. They burn the Acts of the English Parlia- 
ment by the hands of the common hangman. They slay the 
King's soldiers. They refuse every amicable proposal. They 
cast from them forever the King's authority. They hand down 
a dislike to the English name, of which some traces lingered 
among them for generations. 

By what unhallowed ^ magic has this change been wrought so 
swiftly ? By what process, in so few years, have three million 
people been taught to abhor the country they so loved ? 

The ignorance and folly of the English Government wrought 

■' What war ? I magic suggests that this change had 

^ Unhallowed— wicked. The word | been wrought by unnatural means. 



introduction: 



11 



this evil. Under the fuller knowledge of our modern time, 
colonies are allowed to discontinue their connection with the 
mother country when it is their wish to do so. Better had 
America gone in peace. But better she w^ent, even in wrath and 
bloodshed, than continued in paralyzing dependence upon Eng- 
land. 

For many years England had governed her American colonies 
harshly, and in a spirit of undisguised selfishness. America was 
ruled, not for her own good, but for the good of English com- 
merce. She was not allowed to export her products except to 
England. No foreign ship might enter her ports. Woolen 
goods were not allowed to be sent from one colony to another. 
At one time the manufacture of hats was forbidden. In a liberal 
mood Parliament removed that prohibition, but decreed that no 
maker of hats should employ any negro workman, or any larger 
number of apprentices than two. Iron-works were forbidden. 
Up to the latest hour of English rule the Bible was not allowed 
to be printed in America. 

The Americans had long borne the cost of their own govern- 
ment and defense. But in that age of small revenue and profuse 
expenditure on unmeaning continental wars,® it had been often 
suggested that America should be taxed for the purposes of the 
home Government. Some one proposed that to Sir Robert Wal- 
pole '" m a time of need. The wise Sir Robert shook his head. 
It must be a bolder man than he was who would attempt that. 
A man bolder, because less wise, was found in due time. 

The Seven Years' War had ended, and England had added a 
hundred million to her national debt. The country was suf- 
fering, as countries always do after great wars, and it was no 
easy matter to fit the new burdens on to the national shoulder. 
The hungry eye of Lord Grenville'' searched where a new tax 



® Unmeaning continental wars : 
especially the war of the Austrian 
Succession in 1741, wliich resulted 
in no benefit to England. 

^^ Sir Robert Walpole, prime min- 



ister of England from 1721 to 1742. 
" Lord Grenville became chan- 
cellor of the exchequer in 1763, and 
promoted the passage of the Stamp 
Act. 



12 INTRODUGTIOK 

might be laid. The Americans had begun visibly to prosper. 
Already their growing wealth was the theme of envious discourse 
among English merchants. The English officers who had 
fought in x\merica spoke in glowing terms of the magnificent 
hospitality wliich had been extended to them. No more need be 
said. The House of Commons passed a resolution asserting their 
right to tax the Americans. No solitary voice was raised against 
this fatal resolution. Immediately after, an Act was passed im- 
posing certain taxes upon silks, coffee, sugar, and other articles. 
The Americans remonstrated. They were willing, they said, to 
vote what moneys the King required of them, but they vehe- 
mently denied the right of any Assembly in which they were not 
represented to take from them any portion of their property. 
They were the subjects of the King, but they owed no obedience 
to the English Parliament. Lord Grenville went on his course. 
He had been told the Americans would complain but submit, 
and he believed it. Next session an Act was passed imposing 
stamp duties '^ on America. The measure awakened no interest. 
Edmund Burke '' said he had never been present at a more lan- 
guid debate. In the House of Lords there was no debate at all. 
With so little trouble was a continent rent away from the British 
Empire. 

Benjamin Eranklin " told the House of Commons that Amer- 
ica would never submit to the Stamp Act, and that no power 
on earth could enforce it. The Americans made it impossible 
for Government to mistake their sentiments. Riots, which 
swelled from day to day into dimensions more '^ enormous and 
alarming," burst forth in the New England States. Every- 
where the stamp distributors were compelled to resign their 



^^ Stamp duties were a method of 
raisiug revenue. All deeds, mort- 
gages, wills, etc., must be written 
upon stamped paper in order to be 
legal. 

^'^ Edmund Burke, a distinguished 
statesman and political writer. At 



that time he was secretary of the 
prime minister, the Marquis of 
Rockingham, but soon after became 
a member of Parliament. 

'^ Benjamin Franklin was residing 
in London as the agent of Pennsyl- 
vania. 



offices. One unfortunate man was led forth to Boston Com- 
mon, and made to sign his resignation in presence of a vast 
crowd. Anotlier, in desperate health, was visited in his sick- 
room and obliged to pledge that if he lived he would resign. 
A universal resolution was come to that no English goods 
would be imported till the Stamp Act was repealed. The colo- 
nists would "eat nothing, drink nothing, wear nothing that 
comes from England," v/hile this great injustice endured. The 
Act was to come into force on the 1st of November (1765). That 
day the bells rang out funereal peals, and the colonists wore the 
aspect of men on whom some heavy calamity has fallen. But the 
Act never came into force. Not one of Lord Grenville's stamps 
was ever bought or sold in America. Some of the stamped paper 
was burned by the mob ; the rest was hidden away to save it 
from the same fate.^^ Without stamps, marriages were null ; 
mercantile transactions ceased to be binding ; suits at law were 
impossible. Nevertheless the business of human life went on. 
Men married ; they bought, they sold ; they went to law ; — 
illegally, because without stamps. But no harm came of it. 

England heard with amazement that America refused to obey 
the law. There were some who demanded that the Stamp Act 
should be enforced by the sword. But it greatly moved the Eng- 
lish merchants that America should cease to im23ort their goods. 
William Pitt — not yet Earl of Chatham — denounced the Act, 
and said he was glad America had resisted. Pitt and the mer- 
chants triumphed, and the Act was repealed. There was illumi- 
nation in London that night. The city bells rang for joy ; 
the ships in the Thames displayed all their colors. The sad- 
dest heart in all London was that of poor King George, who 
never ceased to lament "the fatal repeal of the Stamp Act." All 
America thrilled with joy and pride when the news arrived of the 
great triumph. They voted Pitt a statue ; they set apart a day 
for public rejoicing ; all prisoners for debt were set free. A great 
deliverance had been granted, and the delight of the gladdened 

^5 In New York it was locked up in the City Hall. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

people knew no bounds. The diinger is over for the present ; 
but whosoever governs America now has need to walk warily. 

It was during the agitation arising out of the Stamp Act that 
the idea of a General Congress of the States was suggested. A 
loud cry for union had arisen. '^^ Join or die" was the prevail- 
ing sentiment. The Congress met in New York. It did little 
more than discuss and petition. It is interesting merely as one 
of the first exhibitions of a tendency towards federal union ^® in a 
country whose destiny, in all coming time, this tendency was to 
fix. 

The repeal of the Stamp Act delayed only for a little the fast- 
coming crisis. A new ministry was formed, with the Earl of 
Chatham at its head. But soon the great Earl lay sick and help- 
less, and the burden of government rested on incapable shoulders. 
Charles Townshend, a clever, captivating, but most indiscreet 
man, became the virtual Prime Minister. The feeling in the 
public inind had now become more unfavorable to America. 
Townshend proposed to levy a variety of taxes from the Ameri- 
cans. The most famous of his taxes was one of threepence per 
pound on tea. All his proposals became law. 

This time the more thoughtful Americans began to despair of 
justice. The boldest scarcely ventured yet to suggest revolt 
against England, so powerful and so loved. But the grand final 
refuge of independence was silently brooded over by many. The 
mob fell back on their customary solution. Great riots occurred. 
To quell these disorders English troops encamped on Boston 
Common. The town swarmed with red-coated men, every one 
of whom was a humiliation. Their drums beat on Sunday, and 
troubled tlie orderly men of Boston, even in church. At inter- 
vals fresh transports dropped in, bearing additional soldiers, till 
a great force occupied the town. Tlie galled citizens could ill 
brook to be thus bridled. The ministers prayed to Heaven for 
deliverance from the presence of the soldiers. The General 

'^ A federal union was formed when the separate States united under 
one government. 



INTROnUGTIOK 



15 



Court '^ of Massachusetts called vehemently on the Governor to re- 
move them. The Governor had no powers in that matter. He 
called upon the court to make suitable provision for the King's 
troops, — a request which it gave, the court infinite pleasure to re- 
fuse. 

The universal irritation broke forth in frequent brawls be- 
tween soldiers and people. One wintry moonlight night in 
March, when snow and ice lay about the streets of Boston, a more 
than usually determined attack was made upon a party of sol- 
diers. The mob thought the soldiers dared not fire without 
the order of a magistrate, and were very bold in the strength 
of that belief. It proved a mistake. The soldiers did fire, and 
the blood of eleven slain or wounded persons stained the frozen 
streets. This was "the Boston Massacre, '' which greatly in- 
flamed the patriot antipathy to the mother country. 

, Two or three unquiet years passed, and no progress towards a 
settlement of differences had' been made. From all the colonies 
there came, loud and unceasing, the voice of complaint and 
remonstrance. It fell upon unheeding ears, for England was 
committed.'^ To her honor be it said, it was not in the end for 
money that she alienated her children. The tax on tea must be 
maintained to vindicate the authority of England. But when 
the tea was shipped, such a drawback '^ was allowed that the price 
would actually have been lower in America than it was at home. 
The Americans had, upon the whole, kept loyally to their pur- 
pose of importing no English goods, specially no goods on which 
duty could be levied. Occasionally, a patriot of the more worldly- 
minded sort yielded to temptation, and secretly dispatched an 
order to England. He was forgiven, if penitent. If obdurate, 
his name was published, and a resolution of the citizens to trade 
no more with a person so unworthy soon brought him to reason. 



" General Court is the name ap- 
plied to the Legislature of Mas- 
sachusetts. 

'8 To what ? 



^^ Drawback is money paid back 
by the Government to reduce tLe 
duty. 



16 



INTRODVCTION. 



But^ in the main, the colonists were true to their bond, and when 
they could no longer smuggle they ceased to import. The East 
India Company iA London,"'" accumulated vast quantities of un- 
salable tea, for which a market must be found. Several ships 
were freighted with tea, and sent out to America. 

Cheaper tea was never seen in Amei-ica ; but it bore upon it 
the abhorred tax which asserted British control over the prop- 
erty of Americans. Will the Americans, long bereaved of the 
accustomed beverage, yield to the temptation, and barter their 
honor for cheap tea ? The East India Company never doubted 
it ; but the Company knew nothing of the temper of the Ameri- 
can people. The ships arrived at New York and Philadelphia. 
These cities stood firm. The ships w^ere promptly sent home — 
their hatches unopened — and duly bore their rejected cargoes 
back to the Thames. 

When the ships destined for Boston showed their tall masts in 
the bay, the citizens ran together to hold council. It was Sun- 
day, and the men of Boston were strict. But here was an 
exigency,^' in presence of which all ordinary rules are suspended. 
The crisis has come at length. If that tea is landed it will be 
sold, it will be used, and American liberty will become a by-word 
upon the earth. 

Samuel Adams was the true king in Boston at that time. He 
was a man in middle life, of cultivated mind and stainless repu- 
tation — a powerful speaker and writer — a man in whose sagacity 
and moderation all men trusted. He resembled the old Puritans 
in his stern love of liberty — his reverence for the Sabbath — his 
sincere, if somewhat formal, observance of all religious ordi- 
nances. He was among the first to see that there was no resting- 
place in this struggle short of independence. ^MVe are free," 
he said, ^^and want no king." The men of Boston felt the 
power of his resolute spirit, and manfully followed where Samuel 
Adams led. 



20 The East India Company was an 
association of London merchants 
who received from Queen Elizabeth 
in 1600 the exclusive rii^ht to tiade 



with India. It continued to exist 
until 1858. 

2' Exigency — a case demanding im- 
mediate action. 



INTRODUCTIOK 



17 



It was hoped that the agents of the East India Company wonld 
have consented to send the ships home ; but the agents "^^ refused. 
Several days of excitement and ineffectual negotiation ensned. 
People flocked in from the neighboring towns. "^ The time was 
spent mainly in public meeting ; the city resounded with im- 
passioned discourse. But meanwhile the ships lay peacefully at 
their moorings, and the tide of patriot talk seemed to flow in vain. 
Other measures were visibly necessary. One day a meeting was 
held, and the excited people continued in hot debate till the 
shades of evening fell. No progress was made. At length Samuel 
Adams stood up in the dimly-lighted church/* and announced, 
'' This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." With 
a stern shout the meeting broke up. Fifty men disguised as 
Indians hurried down to the wharf, each man with a hatchet in 
his hand. The crowd followed. The ships were boarded ; the 
chests of tea were brought on deck, broken up, and flung into 
the bay. The approving citizens looked on in silence. It was 
felt by all that the step was grave and eventful in the highest 
degree. So still was the crowd that no sound was heard but the 
stroke of the hatchet and the splash of the shattered chests as 
they fell into the sea. All questions about the disposal of those 
cargoes of tea at all events are now solved. 

This is what America has done ; it is for England to make the 
next move. Lord North " was now at the head of the British 
Government. It was his lordship's belief that the troubles in 
America sprang from a small number of ambitious persons, and 
could easily, by proper firmness, be suppressed. ^^The Ameri- 
cans will be lions while we are lambs,'' said General Gage.''^ The 
King believed this, and Lord North believed it. In this deep 



^'^ A committee was sent to Gov. 
Hutchinson to ask his leave to send 
the tea back to England, but the re- 
quest was refused. 

^'^ What were the names of these 
towns ? 

24 The Old South Church. 

^^ Lord North was a favorite of 



George III., and was prime minister 
from 1770 to 1783. 

'^^ General Thomas Gage was made 
commander of the British forces in 
America in 1773, and in 1774 was 
appointed Governor of Massachu- 
setts. With what important events 
is he connected ? 



18 IN TMODVCTION. 

ignorance lie proceeded to deal with the great emergency. He 
closed Boston as a port for the landing and shipping of goods. 
He imposed a fine to indemnify ^' the East India Company for 
their lost teas. He withdrew the Charter ^^ of Massachusetts. 
He authorized the Governor to send political offenders to Eng- 
land for trial. Great voices were raised against these severities. 

Lord Chatham, old in constitution now, if not in years, and 
near the close of his career, pleaded for measures of conciliation. 
Edmund Burke justified the resistance of the Americans. Their 
opposition was fruitless. All Lord North's measures of repres- 
sion became law ; and General Gage, with an additional force of 
soldiers, was sent to Boston to carry them into effect. Gage was 
an authority on American affairs. He had fought under Brad- 
dock.^** Among blind men the one-eyed man is king ; among the 
profoundly ignorant, the man with a little knowledge is irre- 
sistibly persuasive. '^Four regiments sent to Boston," said the 
hopeful Gage, ^' will prevent any disturbance." He was believed ; 
but, unhappily for his own comfort, he was sent to Boston to 
secure the fulfillment of his own prophecy. He threw up some 
fortifications and lay as in a hostile city. The Americans ap- 
pointed a day of fasting and humiliation. They did more. They 
formed themselves into military companies ; they occupied them- 
selves with drdl ; they laid up stores of ammunition. Most of 
them had muskets, and could use them. He who had no musket 
now got one. They hoped that civil war would be averted, but 
there was no harm in being ready. 

While General Gage was throwing up his fortifications at 
Boston, there met in Philadelphia a congress of delegates, sent 
by the States, to confer in regard to the troubles which were 
thickening round them. Twelve States were represented. 
Georgia as yet paused timidly on the brink of the perilous en- 
terprise. They were notable men who met there, and their 
work is held in enduring honor. " For genuine sagacity, for 



2' Indemnify — to make good the 
loss of. 
'^^ When granted and by whom ? 



'■'5 Where was Braddock killed and 
under what circumstances ? 



INTRODUCTION. 



19 



singular moderation, for solid wisdom/^ said the great Earl of 
Chatham, '' the Congress of Philadelphia shines unrivaled." 
The low-roofed quaint old room ^^ in which their meetings were 
held became one of the shrines which Americans delight to 
visit. George Washington was there, and his massive sense and 
copious knowledge were a supreme guiding power. 

Patrick Henry, then a young man, brought to the council a 
wisdom beyond his years, and a fiery eloquence, which, to some 
of his hearers, seemed almost more than human. He had already 
proved his unfitness for farming and for shop-keeping. He was 
now to prove that he could utter words which swept over a con- 
tinent, thrilling men's hearts like the voice of the trumpet, and 
rousing them to heroic deeds. John lioutledge from South Car- 
olina aided him with an eloquence little inferior to his own. 
Richard Henry Lee, with his Roman aspect, his bewitching voice, 
his ripe scholarship, his rich stores of historical and political 
knowledge, would have graced the highest assemblies of the Old 
World. John Dickinson, the wise farmer from the banks of the 
Delaware, whose Letters ^^ had done so much to form the public 
sentiment — his enthusiastic love of England overborne by his 
sense of wrong — took regretful but resolute part in withstanding 
the tyranny of the English Government. 

We have the assurance of Washington that the members of 
this Congress did not aim at independence. As yet it was their 
wish to have wrongs redressed and to continue British subjects. 
Their proceedings give ample evidence of this desire. They drew 
up a narrative of their wrongs. As a means of obtaining redress, 
they adopted a resolution that all commercial intercourse with 
Britain should cease. They addressed the King, imploring his 
majesty to remove those grievances which endangered their re- 
lations with him. They addressed the people of Great Britain, 
with whom, they said, they deemed a union as their greatest 
glory and happiness ; adding, however, that they would not be 



^'^ It was known as "Carpenter's 
Hall." 



2' In 1768 he had published his 
"Letters from a Pennsylvania Farm- 
er " addressed to the colonists. 



20 



INTRODUCTIOK 



hewers of wood and drawers of water to any nation in the world. 
They appealed to their brother colonists of Canada for support 
in their peaceful resistance to oppression. But Canada, newly 
conquered from Fi-ance/' was peopled almost wholly by French- 
men. A Frenchman of that time was contented to enjoy such ?n 
amount of liberty and property as his King was pleased to per- 
mit. And so from Canada there came no response of sympathy 
or help. 

Here Congress paused. Some members believed, with AVash- 
insfton, that their remonstrances would be effectual. Others, 
less sanguine, looked for no settlement but that which the sword 
might bring. They adjourned, to meet again next May. This 
is enough for the present. What further steps the new events 
of that coming summer may call for, we shall be prepared with 
God^s help, to take. 

England showed no relenting in her treatment of the Ameri- 
cans. The King gave no reply to the address of Congress. The 
Houses of Lords and of Commons refused even to allow that ad- 
dress to be read in their hearing. The King announced his firm 
purpose to redwce the refractory '' colonists to obedience. Parlia- 
ment gave loyal assurances of support to the blinded monarch. 
All trade with the colonies was forbidden. All American ships 
and cargoes might be seized by those who were strong enough to 
do so. The alternative presented to the American choice was 
without disguise — the Americans had to fight for their liberty, or 
forego it. The people of England had, in those days, no control 
over the government of their country. All this was managed for 
them by a few great families. Their allotted part was to toil 
hard, pay their taxes, and be silent. If they had been permitted 
to speak, their voice would have vindicated the men who asserted 
the right of self-government— a right which Englishmen them- 
selves were not to enjoy for many a long year. 



32 How long since the conquest of 
Caoacla by the English? 



^^ Eefractory— obstinate, not dis- 
posed to yiekl readily. 



First Battles of the Revolution. 



Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. 




Map of Massachusetts. 



Take your station on the Connecticut Eiver. Everything 
about you, whatsoever you behold or approach, bears witness 
that you belong to a powerful and prosperous state. But it is 



22 



FIMST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 



only seventy years ^ since the towns which you now contemplate 
with admiration, as the abodes of a numerous, refined, enter- 
prising population, safe in the enjoyment of life's best blessings, 
were wasted and burned by the savages of the wilderness ; and 
their inhabitants, in large numbers, — the old and the young, the 
minister of the gospel, and the mother with her new-born babe,'^ 
— were wakened at midnight by the war-whoop, dragged from 
their beds, and marched with bleeding feet across the snow-clad 
mountains, to be sold, as slaves, to the French in Canada. 

Go back eighty years farther, and the same barbarous foe is 
on the skirts of the oldest settlements. As late as 1676, ten or 
twelve citizens of Concord were slain or carried into captivity, 
who had gone to meet the Indians in their attack on Sudbury, 
in which the brave Captain Wadsworth and his companions fell. 

That astonishing incident in human affairs, the Eevolution 
of America, as seen on the day of its portentous," or rather, let 
me say, of its auspicious commencement, is the theme of our 
present consideration.- On the one hand, we behold a connec- 
tion of events, — the time and circumstances of the original dis- 
covery ; the settlements of the Pilgrims, and their peculiar 
principles and cliaracter ; their singular political relations wdth 
the mother- country ; their long and doubtful struggle with t*he 
savage tribes ; their collisions with the royal governors ; their 
cooperation in tlie British wars, — with all the influences of their 
geographical and physical condition, uniting to constitute what 
I may call the national education of America. 

AVhen we take this survey, we feel, as far as Massachusetts is 



^ The author deUvered this ad- 
dress at Concord in 1825, To what 
period does he refer ? What war 
was then about to begin ? What 
was its object and result ? 

'■^ Rev. John Williams of Deer- 
field, Mass., who was carried away 
to Canada, and afterw\ards returned 
to write the story of his captivity. 



Mrs. Duston of Haverhill, with her 
infant and nurse and young boy, 
was compelled to go away with the 
Indians, but after a journey of sev- 
eral days escaped. 

^ Portentous — that which threat- 
ens calamity. Why does the author 
change this adjective for the other ? 



FIRST BATTLES OF TBF REVOLUTIOK 



23 



Concerned, that we ought to divide the honors of the Eevolution 
with the great men of the colony in every generation ; with the 
Winslows and the Pepperells, the Cookes, the Dummers and the 
Mathers, the Winthrops and the Bradfords, and all who labored 
and acted in the cabinet, the desk, or the field, for the one great 
cause. 

On the other hand, when we dwell upon the day itself, every- 
thing else seems lost in the comparison. Had our fathers failed, 
on that day of trial which we now celebrate ; had their votes and 
their resolves (as was tauntingly predicted on both sides of the 
Atlantic) ended in the breath in which they began ; had the 
rebels laid down their arms, as they were commanded ; and the 
military stores, which had been frugally treasured up for this 
crisis, been, without resistance, destroyed, — then the Eevolution 
would have been at an end, or rather never had been begun ; the 
heads of Hancock and Adams* and their brave colleagues would 
have been exposed in ghastly triumph on Temple Bar ; ^ a mili- 
tary despotism would have been firmly fixed in the colonies ; the 
patriots of Massachusetts would have been doubly despised — the 
scorn of their enemies, the scorn of their deluded countrymen ; 
and the heart of this great people, then beating and almost 
bursting for freedom, would have been struck cold and dead, 
perhaps forever. 

It was not England, but the English ministerial party of the 
day, and even a small circle in that party, ^ which projected the 
measures that resulted in our Eevolution. The rights of America 
found steady and powerful assertors in England. Lord Chatham 
declared to the House of Peers that he was glad America had re- 



■* Why were these men selected as 
the special objects of British ven- 
geance ? 

5 Temple Bar— a structure on the 
site of one of the old city gates of 
London, upon which the heads of 
rebels and traitors used to be dis 
played. 



« "The British ministry did not 
at this time represent the sentiments 
of the people, and Parliament was 
unpopular, and the steps which were 
taken adverse to the Ameiican 
Colonies must not be attributed to 
the English people." — Oilman's 
"Am. People," p. 230 



u 



FIRST BA2TLEH OF THF REVOLUTION'. 



sisted ; and, alluding to the fact that he had a son in the British 
army, he added, that '^^none of his blood should serve in this 
detested cause/' Nay, even a portion of the Ministry that im- 
posed the stamp duty, — the measure which hastened the spirit of 
America to a crisis which it might not have reached in a gener- 
ation,— Lord Mansfield, the Duke of Grafton, the Earl of Shel- 
burne, and Lord Camden, rose, one after another, and asserted, 
in the House of Lords, that they had no share in some of the 
measures which were proposed by the very cabinet of which they 
were leading members. 

But I must go farther. Did faithful history compel ns to 
cast on all England, united, the reproach of those measures 
which drove our fathers to arms ; and were it, in consequence, 
the unavoidable effect of these celebrations, to revive the 
feelings of revolutionary times in the bosoms of the aged ; 
to kindle those feelings anew in the susceptible hearts of the 
young ; it would still be our duty, on every becoming occa- 
sion, in the strongest colors, and in the boldest lines we can 
command, to retrace the picture of the times that tried men's 
souls. We owe it to our fathers, we owe it to our children. 

There is not a people on earth so abject as to think that 
national courtesy requires them to hush up the tale of the glori- 
ous exploits of their fathers and countrymen. France is at peace 
with Austria and Prussia ; but she does not demolish her beauti- 
ful bridges, which perpetuate the names of the battle-fields where 
Napoleon anniliilated their armies, nor tear down the columns 
molten out of their captured artillery. England is at peace with 
France and Spain ; but does she suppress the names of Trafalgar ' 
and Waterloo ? does she overthrow the towers of Blenheim Cas- 
tle," eternal monuments of the disasters of France ? No ; she is 



"' Traf al-gar' aud "Waterloo. What 
English admiral made the former 
aud wliat general made the latter of 
these places famous ? Give the 
location of each. 



8 Blenheim Castle— erected by Par- 
liameut as a testimony to the dis- 
tinguished military services of the 
Duke of Marlborough at the battle 
of Blenheim. 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE ME VOLUTION. 



25 



wiser. Wiser, did I say ? She is truer, juster to the memory of 
her fathers and the spirit of her children. 

The national character, in some of its most important ele- 
ments, must be formed, elevated, and strengthened from the 
materials whicJi history presents. Are we to be eternally ring- 
ing the changes upon Marathon and Thermopylae,* and going 
back to find in obscure texts of Greek and Latin the great exem- 
plars of patriotic virtue ? I rejoice that we can find them nearer 
home, in our own country, on our own soil ; that strains of the 
noblest feeling that ever swelled in the breast of man are breath- 
ing to us, out of every page of our country^s history, in the 
native eloquence of our mother-tongue ; that the colonial and 
the provincial councils of America exhibit to us models of the 
spirit and character which gave Greece and Eome their name 
and their praise among the nations. Here we ought to go for 
our instruction ; the lesson is plain and easily applied. 

I do not mean that these examples are to destroy the interest 
with which we read the history of ancient times ; they possibly 
increase that interest, by the singular contrasts they exhibit. 
We ought to seek our gceat practical lessons of patriotism at 
home ; out of the exploits and sacrifices, of which our own coun- 
tiy is the theater; out of the characters of our own fathers. 
Them we know, the natural, unaffected, — the citizen heroes. 
We know what happy firesides they left for the cheerless camp. 
We know with what pacific habits they dared the perils of the 
field. There is no mystery, no romance, no madness, under the 
name of chivalry,'" about them. It is all resolute, manly resist- 
ance,— for the sake of conscience and principle,— not merely of 
an overwlielming power, but of all the force of long-rooted 
habits, and the native love of order and i3eace. 



^ Marathon and Thermopylae— 
places in Greece famous for vic- 
tories won by the Greeks over the 
Persians about 500 B.C. 

^° Name of chivalry. — It was a 



part of the institution of chivalry 
that those who became knights 
made a vow to seeli some strange 
adventure, and especially to rescue 
from peril defenseless women. 



26 FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Above all, their blood calls to us from the soil which we 
tread ; it beats in our veins ; it cries to us, not merely in the 
thrilling words of one of the first victims in the cause, '■'■ My 
sons, scorn to be slaves,''' but it cries with a still more moving 
eloquence, '^^My sons, forget not your fathers/' Fast, 0, too 
fast, with all our efforts to prevent it, their precious memories 
are dying away. Notwithstanding our numerous written me- 
morials, much of what is known of those eventful times dwells 
but in the recollection of a few revered survivors, and is rapidly 
perishing with them. 

Let us then faithfully go back to those all-important days. 
Let us recall the events with which the momentous Revolutionary 
crisis was brought on ; let us gather up the traditions which still 
exist ; let us show the world, that if we are not called to follow 
the example of our fathers, we are at least not insensible to the 
worth of their characters, nor indifferent to the sacrifices and 
trials by which they purchased our prosperity. 

Time would fail us to recount the measures by which the way 
was prepared for the Revolution : the Stamp Act ; its repeal, 
with the declaration of the right to tax America ; the landing of 
troops in Boston, beneath the batteries of fourteen vessels of 
war, lying broadside to the town, with springs on their cables, 
their guns loaded, and matches smoking ; the repeated insults, 
and finally the massacre of the fifth of March, resulting from 
this military occupation ; and the Boston Port Bill, by which 
the final catastrophe was hurried on. 

Nor can we dwell upon the appointment at Salem, on the 
seventeenth of June, 1774, of the delegates to the Continental 
Congress ; of the formation at Salem, in the following October, 
of the Provincial Congress;'' of the decided measures which 
were taken by that noble assembly at Concord and at Cam- 
bridge ; of the preparations they made against the worst, by 



'^ The Assembly of Massachusetts 
met at Salem contrary to the order 
of General Gage, and afterwards ad- 



journed to Concord. Why did they 
not assemble in Boston, the usual 
place of meeting ? 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 27 

organizing the militia, providing stores, and. appointing com- 
manders. All this was done by the close of the year 1774. 

At length the memorable year of 1775 arrived. The plunder 
of the provincial stores '' at Med ford, and the attempt to seize 
the cannon at Salem, had produced a highly irritated state of 
the public mind. The friends of our rights in England made a 
vigorous effort, in the month of ^March, to avert the crisis that 
impended. On the twenty-second of that month, Mr. Burke 
spoke the last word of conciliation and peace. He spoke it in a 
tone and with a power befitting the occasion and the man ; but 
he spoke it to the northwest wind. 

Eight days after, at that season of the year when the prudent 
New England husbandman repairs the inclosures of his field as 
the first preparation for the labors of the season. General Gage 
sent out a party of eleven hundred men to overthrow the stone 
walls in the neighborhood of Boston, by way of opening and 
levelling the arena for the approaching contest. With the same 
view, in the months of February and March, his officers were 
sent in disguise to traverse the country, to make military sur- 
veys of its roads and passes, to obtain accounts of the stores at 
Concord and Worcester, and to communicate with the dis- 
affected. These disguised officers were at Concord on the 
twentieth of March, and received treacherous or unsuspecting 
information of the places where the provincial stores were con- 
cealed. 

I mention this only to show that our fathers, in their arduous 
contest, had everything to contend with : secret as well as open 
foes ; treachery as well as power. But I need not add, that they 
possessed not only the courage and the resolution, but the vigi- 
lance and care, demanded for the crisis. In November, 1774, a 
society had been formed at Boston, principally of the meclianics 
of that town,— a class of men to whom the Revolutionary cause 
was as dee^oly indebted as to any other in America,— for the ex- 

1'^ Provincial stores — arms and I the use of the citizens in case of 
ammunition secretly collected for war, 



28 FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 

press purpose of closely watching the movements of the open and 
secret foes of the country. 

In the long and dreary nights of a New England winter they 
patrolled the streets, and not a movement which concerned the 
cause escaped their vigilance, — not a measure of the royal gov- 
ernor but was in their possession in a few hours after it was 
communicated to his confidential officers. Nor was manly 
patriotism alone aroused in the cause. The daughters of America 
were inspired with the same noble temper that animated their 
fathers, their husbands, and their brothers. The historian tells 
us that the first intimation communicated to the patriots of the 
impending commencement of hostilities came from a ^' daugh- 
ter of liberty, unequally yoked with an enemy of her country^s 
rights." 

With all these warnings, and all the vigilance with which the 
royal troops were watched, none supposed the fatal moment was 
so near. On Saturday, April fifteenth, the Provincial Congress 
adjourned their session to meet on the tenth of May. On the 
very same day, Saturday, the fifteenth of April, the companies 
of grenadiers '' and light infantry in Boston — the flower not 
merely of the royal garrison, but of the British army — were taken 
off their regular duty, under the pretense of learning a new 
military exercise. At the midnight following, the boats of the 
transport ships, which had been previously repaired, were 
launched, and moored for safety under the sterns of the vessel 
of war. 

Not one of these movements — least of all, that which took 
place under cover of midnight — was unobserved by the vigilant 
" Sons of Liberty.'^ The next morning, Colonel Paul Eevere, a 
very active member of the patriotic society just mentioned, was 
despatched, by Dr. Joseph Warren,"* to John Hancock and 



la 



Grenadiers — tall and stout sol- ! nent physician of Boston, distin- 



diers selected for special service. 

'^ Dr. Joseph Warren, President 
of the Provincial Cougress, an cmi- 



guished also as a statesman and an 
orator. 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 



29 



Samuel Adams, then at Lexington, whose seizure was threatened 
by the royal governor.'" So early did these distinguished patri- 
ots receive the intelligence that preparations for an important 
movement were on foot. Justly considering, however, that 
some object besides the seizure of two individuals was probably 
designed in the movement of so large a force, they advised the 





John Hancock. 



Joseph Warren. 



Committee of Safety to order the distribution, into the neigh- 
boring towns, of the stores collected at Concord. 

Colonel Revere, on his return from this excursion on the six- 
teenth of April, in order to guard against any accident which 
might make it impossible at the last moment to give information 
from Boston of the departure of the troops, concerted with his 
friends in Charlestown,'® that, whenever the British forces should 
embark in their boats to cross into the country, two lanterns 
should be lighted in the North Church steeple ; and one, should 
they march out by Koxbury. 

Thus was the meditated blow prepared for before it was 
struck, and the caution of the British commander was rendered 



'^ They were not publicly de- 
nounced by the government until 
June 12. 

'^ Chavlestdwn is Rcparated from 



Boston by the Charles River, which 
at that time was much wider than 
at present, and could be crossed only 
by boats. 



'60 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 



unavailing, who, on Tuesday, the eighteenth of April, despatched 
ten sergeants, with orders to dine at Cambridge, and at nightfall 
to scatter themselves on the roads from Boston to Concord, to 
prevent notice of the projected expedition from reaching the 
country. 

At length the momentous hour arrives — as big with conse- 
quences to man as any that ever struck in his history. The dark- 
ness of night still shrouds the rash and fatal measures with which 




Concord, Mass. 
1775. 

the liberty of America is hastened on. The highest officers in 
the British army are as yet ignorant of the nature of the medi- 
tated blow. At nine o'clock in the evening of the eighteenth, 
Lord Percy is sent for by the governor, to receive the informa- 
tion of the design. On his way back to his lodgings, he finds 
the very movements, which had been just communicated to him 
m confidence by the commander-in-chief, a subject of conversa- 
tion in a group of patriotic citizens in tlie street. He hastens 
back to General Gage, and tells him he is betrayed • and orders 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE DEVOLUTION . 31 

are instantly given to permit no American to leave the town. 
But the order is five minutes too late. 

Dr. AYarren^ the president of the Committee of Safety, though 
he had returned only at nightfall from the meeting at West Cam- 
bridge, was already in possession of the whole design ; and in- 
stantly despatched two messengers to Lexnigton — Mr. "William 
Dawes, who went out through Roxbury, and Colonel Paul Revere, 
who crossed to Charlestown. The latter received this summons 
at ten o'clock on Tuesday night ; the lanterns were immediately 
lighted up in North Church steeple ; '" and in this way, before a 
man of the soldiery was embarked in the boats, the news of their 
coming was traveling with the rapidity of light through the 
country.'^ 

Having accomplished this precautionary measure. Colonel 
Revere repaired to the north part of the town, where he con- 
stantly kept a boat in readiness, in which he was now rowed by 
two friends across the river, a little to the eastward of the spot 
where the Somerset man-of-war was moored, between Boston and 
Charlestown. It was then young flood,'" the ship was swinging 
round upon the tide, and the moon was just rising upon this 
midnight scene of solemn anticipation. 

Colonel Revere *° was safely landed in Charlestown, where his 
signals had already been observed. He procured a horse from 
Deacon Larkin, for the further pursuit of his errand. That he 
would not be permitted to accomplish it, without risk of inter- 
ruption, was evident from the information which he received 



^'' This iucident as well as the sub- 
sequent ride, have been immortal- 
ized by Mr Longfellow iu the patri- 
otic poem of Paul Revere's Ride. 

'8 Some British officers hastened 
to the church to extinguish the 
lanterns, which had been lighted by 
the sexton. He escaped arrest by 
coucealing himself in the vaults of 
the church. 



'^ Young flood— the tide was com- 
ing in. 

2" Colonel Revere was at this time 
about forty years of age. He had 
been a lieutenant of artillery dur- 
ing the French and Indian War. 
He was one of the disguised actors 
in the Tea Party, and had carried 
to New York and Philadelphia the 
news of the closing of the port of 

Boston, 



32 FIRST BATTLED OF THE liEVOLUTIOK 

from Mr. Eicharcl Devens, a member of the Committee of Safety, 
that on his way from West Cambridge, where the committee sat, 
he had encountered several British officers, well armed and 
mounted, going up the road. 

At eleven o'clock. Colonel Revere started upon his errand. 
After passing Charlestown Neck, he saw two men on horseback 
under a tree. On approaching them he perceived them by the 
lidit of the moon to be British officers. One of them immedi- 
ately tried to intercept, and the other to seize him. The colonel 
instantly turned back towards Charlestown, and then struck into 
the Medford road. The officer in pursuit of him, endeavoring 
to cut him off, plunged into a clay pond in the corner between 
the two roads, and the colonel escaped. He pursued his way to 
Medford, awoke the captain of the minute-men there, and giving 
the alarm at every house on the road, passed on through West 
Cambridge to Lexington. There he delivered his message to 
Messrs. Hancock and Adams, and there also he was shortly after 
joined by Mr. William Dawes, the messenger who had gone out 
by Roxbury. 

After staying a short time at Lexington, Messrs. Revere and 
Dawes, at about one o'clock of the morning of the nineteenth of 
April, started for Concord, to communicate the intelligence 
there. They were soon overtaken on the way by Dr. Samuel 
Prescott, of Concord, who joined them in giving the alarm at 
every house on the road. 

About half way from Lexington to Concord, while Dawes and 
Prescott were alarming a house on the road. Revere, being about 
one hundred rods in advance, saw two officers in the road of the 
same appearance as those he had escaped in Charlestown. He 
called to his companions to assist him in forcing his way through 
them, but was instantly surrounded by four officers. These of- 
ficers had previously thrown down the wall of an adjoining 
field, and the Americans, prevented from forcing their way 
onward, passed into the field. Dr. Prescott, although the reins 
of hi$ horse had been cut in the struggle with the officers. 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 33 

succeeded, by leaping a stone wall, in making his escape from 
the field, and reaching Concord. 

Revere aimed at a wood, but was there encountered by six 
more officers, and was, with his companion, made prisoner. The 
British officers, who had already seized three other Americans, 
having learned from their prisoners that the whole country was 
alarmed, thought it best for their own safety to hasten back, 
taking their prisoners with them. Near Lexington meeting- 
house, on their return, the British officers heard the militia, who 
were on parade, firing a volley of guns. Alarmed at this, they 
compelled Revere to give up his horse, and then, pushing for- 
ward at a full gallop, escaped down the road. 

The morning was now advanced to about four o'clock ; nor 
was it then known at Lexington that the British troops were so 
near at hand. Colonel Revere again sought Messrs. Hancock and 
Adams at the house of the Reverend Mr. Clark ; and it was 
thought expedient by their friends, who had kept watch there 
during the night, that these eminent patriots should remove 
towards Woburn. Having accompanied them to a house on the 
AVoburn road, where they proposed to stop. Colonel Revere re- 
turned to Lexington to watch the progress of events. He soon 
met a person at full gallop, who informed him that the British 
forces were coming up the road. Hastening now to the public 
house, to secure some papers of Messrs. Hancock and Adams, 
Colonel Revere saw the advancing troops in full array. 

It was now seven hours since these troops were put in motion. 
They were mustered at ten o'clock of the night preceding, on the 
Common, in Boston, and embarked, to the number of eight 
hundred grenadiers and light infantry, in the boats of the Brit- 
ish squadron. They landed at Phipps's Farm, 2^ little to the 
south of Lechmere's Point, East Cambridge, and on disembark- 
ing, a day's provision was dealt out to them. • Pursuing the path 
across the marshes, they emerged into the old Charlestown and 
West Cambridge road. 

And here let us pause a moment in the narration, to ask, 
who are the men, and what is the cause? Is it an army of 



34 FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION . 

Frenchmen and Canadians, who in earlier days had often run the 
line between them and us, with havoc and fire, and who have 
now come to pay back the debt of recent defeat and subjugation? 
Or is it their ancient ally of the woods, the stealthy savage, — 
borne in his light canoe, with muffled oars, over the midnight 
waters, — creeping like the felon wolf through our villages, that 
he may start up at dawn, to wage a war of surprise, of plunder, 
and of death, against the slumbering cradle and the defenseless 
fireside ? 0, no ! It is the disciplined armies of a brave, a 
Christian, a kindred people ; led by gallant officers, the choice 
sons of England ; and they are going to seize, and secure for the 
halter, men whose crime is, that they have dared to utter, in the 
English tongue, on this side of the ocean, the principles which 
gave and give England her standing among the nations ; they 
are going to plunge their swords in the breasts of men who, 
fifteen years before, on the Plains of Abraham,"" fought and con- 
quered by their side. 

But they go not unobserved ; the tidings of their approach are 
traveling before them ; the faithful messengers have aroused 
the citizens from their slumbers ; alarm guns are answering to each 
other, and spreading the news from village to village ; the tocsin " 
is heard, at this unnatural hour, from steeples that never before 
rung with any other summons than that of the gospel of peace ; 
the sacred tranquillity of the hour is startled with all the mingled 
sounds of preparation — of resolute though unoi'ganized resist- 
ance. 

The Committee of Safety, as has been observed, had met the 
preceding day at West Cambridge ; " and three of its respected 
members, Gerry, Lee, and Orne, had retired to sleep in the pub- 
lic-house, where the session of the committee was held. So 
difficult was it, notwithstanding all that had passed, to believe 
that a state of things could exist, between England and America, 

2' What decisive battle was fought pose of sounding an alarm, 
on this spot ? Where is it ? '^'^ Now Arlington — four or five 

'^^ "yocsin— a bell rung for the pur- miles west of Bpston, 



FIRST BATTLES OP THE REVOLUTION 35 

in which American citizens should be liable to be torn from their 
beds by an armed force at midnight, that the members of the 
Committee of Safety, though forewarned of the approach of the 
British troops, did not even think it necessary to retire from 
their lodgings. On the contrary, they rose from their beds and 
went to their windows to gaze on the unwonted sight — the mid- 
night march of armies through the peaceful hamlets of New 
England. 

Half the column had already passed, when a flank guard was 
suddenly detached to search the public-house, no doubt in the 
design of arresting the members of the Committee of Safety, who 
might be there. It was only at this last critical moment that 
Mr. Gerry and his friends bethought themselves of flight, and, 
without time even to clothe themselves, escaped into the fields. 

By this time. Colonel Smith, who commanded the expedition, 
appears to have been alarmed at the indications of a general 
rising throughout the country. The light infantry companies 
were now detached and placed under tlie command of Major 
Pitcairne, for the purpose of hastening forward to secure the 
bridges at Concord, and thus cut off the communication between 
this place and the towns north and west of it. Before these 
companies could reach Lexington, the officers already mentioned, 
who had arrested Colonel Revere, joined their advancing country- 
men, and reported that five hundred men were drawn up in 
Lexington, to resist the king's troops. On receiving this highly 
exaggerated account, the British light infantry was halted, to 
give time for the grenadiers to come up. 

The company assembled on Lexington Green, which the 
British officers, in their report, had swelled to five hundred, con- 
sisted of sixty or seventy of the militia of the place. Information 
had been received about nightfall, both by private means and 
by communications from the Committee of Safety, that a strong 
party of officers had been seen on the road, directing their course 
towards Lexington. In consequence of this intelligence, a body 
of about thirty of the militia,^" well-armed, assembled early in 

2-* Who are meant by the militia ? 



36 FIRST BATTLES OF THE ItEVOLVTION. 

the evening ; a guard of eight men under Colonel William Mun- 
roe, then a sergeant in the company, was stationed at the house 
of the Eev. Mr. Clark ; and three men. were sent off to give the 
alarm at Concord. 

These three messengers were, however, stopped on their way, 
as has been mentioned, by the British officers, who had already 
passed onward. (One of their number, Elijah Sanderson, died 
at Salem, at an advanced age.) A little after midnight, as has 
been stated, Messrs. Revere and Dawes arrived with the certain 
information that a very large body of the royal troops was in 
motion. The alarm was now geoerally given to the inhabitants 
of Lexington, messengers were sent down the road to ascertain 
the movements of the troops, and the militia company under 
Captain John Parker appeared on the green to the number of 
one hundred and thirty. The roll was duly called at this peril- 
ous midnight muster, and some answered to their names for the 
last time on earth. 

The company was now ordered to load with powder and ball, 
and awaited in anxious expectation the return of those who had 
been sent to reconnoiter the enemy. One of them, in conse- 
quence of some misinformation, returned and reported that there 
was no appearance of troops on the road from Boston. Under this 
harassing uncertainty and contradiction, the militia were dis- 
missed, to await the return of the other expresses, and with 
orders to be in readiness at the beat of the drum. One of these 
messengers was made prisoner by the British, whose march was 
so cautious, that they remained undiscovered till within a mile 
and a half of Lexington meeting-house, and time was scarce left 
for the last messenger to return with the tidings of their ap- 
proach. 

The new alarm was now given ; the bell rings, alarm guns 
are fired, the drum beats to arms. Some of the militia had gone 
home, when dismissed ; but the greater part were in the neigh- 
boring houses, and instantly obe3^ed the summons. Sixty or 
seventy appeared on the green, and were draAvn up in double 
ranks. At this moment, the British column of eight hundred 



PiRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION: 



3? 



bayonets appears, headed by their mounted commanders, tlieir 
banners flying and drums beating a charge. To engage them 
with a handful of militia of course was madness, — to fly at the 
sight of them they disdained. The British troops rush furiously 
on ; their commander, with mingled threats and oaths, bid the 
Americans lay down their arms and disperse, and his own troops 
to fire. 

A moment's delay, as of compunction," follows. The order, 
with vehement imprecations, is repeated, and they fire." No 
one falls, and the band of self-devoted heroes, most of whom 
probably had never seen a body of troops before, stand firm in the 
front of an army outnumbering tliem ten to one. Another vol- 
ley succeeds ; the killed and wounded drop, and it was not till 
they had returned the fire of the overwhelming force that the 
militia were driven from the field. A scattered fire now suc- 
ceeded ou both sides, while the Americans remained in sight ; 
and the British troops were then drawn up on the green, to fire 
a volley and give a shout in honor of the victory. 

While these incidents were taking place, and every moment 
then came charged with events which were to give a character to 
centuries, Hancock and Adams, though removed by their friends 
from the immediate vicinity of the force sent to apprehend them, 
were apprised, too faithfully, that the work of death was begun. 
The heavy and quick-repeated volleys told them a tale that 
needed no exposition, — which proclaimed that Great Britain had 
severed that strong tie which bound the descendants of England 
to the land of their fathers, and had appealed to the right of the 
strongest. 

The inevitable train of consequences burst in prophetic full- 
ness upon their minds ; and the patriot Adams, forgetting the 
scenes of tribulation through which America must pass to realize 



2^ Compunction — regret that they 
should be about to take the lives of 
such men for no good reason. 

" There is a dispute as to whether 



the British or Americans fired first. 
Probably the truth will never be 
known. 



3g PinST BATTLES OP TltE Rm^OLUTION. 

the prospect, and heedless that the ministers of vengeance were 
in close pursuit of his own life, uttered that memorable exclama- 
tion, equal to anything that can be found in the records of Gre- 
cian or Roman heroism — '' Oh, what a glorious morning is this \" 

Elated with its success, the British army took up its march 
towards Concord. The intelligence of the projected expedition 
had been communicated to this town by Dr. Samuel Prescott, in_ 
the manner already described ; and from Concord had traveled 
onward in every direction. The interval was employed in re- 
moving a portion of the public stores to the neighboring towns, 
while the aged and infirm, the women and children, sought 
refuge in the surrounding woods. About seven o'clock in the 
morning, the glittering arms of the hostile column were seen 
advancing on the Lincoln road. A body of militia, from one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred men, who had taken post for 
observation on the heights above the entrance to the town, re- 
tire at the approach of the army of the enemy, first to the hill a 
little farther north, and then beyond the bridge. The British 
troops press forward into the town, and are drawn up in front of 
the court-house. Parties are then ordered out to the various 
spots where the public stores and arms were supposed to be de- 
posited. Much had been removed to places of safety, and some- 
thing was saved by the prompt and innocent artifices " of in- 
dividuals. The destruction of property and of arms was hasty 
and incomplete, and, considered as the object of an enterprise of 
such fatal consequences, it stands in shocking contrast with the 
waste of blood by which it was effected. 

It was the first care of the British commander to cut off the 
approach of the Americans from the neighboring towns, by de- 
stroying or occupying the bridges. A party was immediately 
sent to the south bridge, and tore it up. A force of six com- 
panies, under Captains Parsons and Lowrie, was sent to the north 



Artifices— iugenious contrivauces. Why are tbey called innocent ? 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 



39 



bridge/® Three companies under Captain Lowrie were left to 
guard it, and tliree under Captain Parsons proceeded to Colonel 
Barrett's house in 'search of provincial stores. While they were 
engaged on that errand, the militia of Concord, joined by their 
brave brethren from the neighboring towns, gathered on the hill 
opposite the north bridge, under the command of Colonel Robin- 
son and Major Butt rick. 

The British companies at the bridge were now apparently be- 
wildered with the perils of their situation, and began to tear up 
the planks of the bridge ; not remembering that this would ex- 
pose their own party, then at Colonel Barrett's, to certain de- 
struction. The Americans, on the other hand, resolved to keep 
open the communication with the town, and perceiving the at- 
tempt which was made to destroy the bridge, were immediately 
put HI motion, with orders not to give the first fire. They drew 
near to the bridge, the Acton company in front, led on by the 
gallant Davis. Three alarm guns were fired into the water, by 
the British, without arresting the march of our citizens. The 
signal for a general discharge is then made — a British soldier 
steps from the ranks, and fires at Major Buttrick. 

The ball passed between his arm and his side, and slightly 
wounded Mr. Luther Blanchard, who stood near him. A volley 
instantly followed, and Captain Davis was shot through the heart, 
gallantly marching at the head of the Acton militia against the 
choice troops of the British liue. A private of his company, 
Hosmer, of Acton, also fell at his side. A general action now 
ensued, which, after the loss of several killed and wounded, ter- 
minated in the retreat of the British party towards the center of 
the town, followed by the brave band who had driven them from 
their post. 

The advance party at Colonel Barrett's was thus left to its fate ; 



"^^ "By the rude bridge that 
arched the flood 
Their flag to April's breeze un- 
furled; 



Here once the embattled farmers 

stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the 

world. " — Emerson. 



40 



FinST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 



and no./hing would have been more easy than to effect its entire 
destruction. But the idea of a declared war had not yet forced 
itself, with all its consequences, into the minds of our country- 
men ; and these advanced companies were allowed to return un- 
molested to the main band. 

It was now twelve hours since the first alarm had been given, 
the evening before, of the meditated expedition. The swift 
watches of that eventful night had scattered the tidings far and 
wide ; and, widely as they spread, the people rose in their 
strength. The indignant yeomanry'''' of the land, armed with 
the weapons which had done service in their fathers' hands, 
poured to the spot where this new and strange tragedy was act- 
ing. 

The old New England drums, that had beat at Louisburg, at 
Quebec, at Martinique, at the Havana, ^° were now sounding on 
all the roads to Concord. There were officers in the British line 
that knew the sound ; they had heard it in the deadly breach, 
beneath the black, deep-throated engines of the French and 
Spanish castles, and they knew what followed, where that sound 
went before. 

With the British, it was a question no longer of protracted 
contest, nor even of halting long enough to rest their exhausted 
troops, after a weary night's march, and all the labor, confusion, 
and distress of the day's efforts. Their dead were hastily buried 
in the public square ; their wounded placed in the vehicles which 
the town afforded ; and a flight commenced, to which the annals 
of warfare will hardly afford a parallel. 

On all the neighboring hills were multitudes, from the sur- 
rounding country, of the unarmed and infirm, of women and 
children, who had fled from the terrors and the perils of the 



23 Yeomanry, in English usage is 
applied to the small landowners 
below the gentry. As used here, it 
is the same as farmers. 

30 Martinique (Mar-tin-eek')— one 



of the W. I. Islands belonging to 
France; it was captured by the 
English in 1762. Havana, belong- 
ing to Spain, was also captured in 
the same year, 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 41 

plunder and conflagration of their homes ; or were collected, 
with fearful curiosity, to mark the progress of this storm of war. 
The panic fears of a calamitous flight, on the part of the British, 
transformed this inoffensive, timid throng into a threatening 
arrayed of armed men ; and there was too much reason for the 
misconception. Every height of ground within reach of the 
line of march was covered with the indignant avengers of their 
slaughtered brethren. 

The British liglit companies were sent out to great distances, 
as flanking parties ; but who was to flank the flankers? ^' Every 
patch of trees, every i-ock, every stream of water, every building, 
every stone wall, was lined (I use the words of a British officer in 
the battle) with an unintermitted fire. Every cross-road opened 
a new avenue to the assailants. Through one of these, the gal- 
lant Brooks led up the minute men of Reading. At another de- 
file they were encountered by the Lexington militia under Cap- 
tain Parker, who, undismayed at the loss of more than a tenth 
of their number in killed and wounded in the morning, had re- 
turned to the conflict. 

At first the contest was kept up by the British with all the 
skill and valor of veteran troops. To a military eye it was not 
an unequal contest. The commander was not, or ought not to 
have been, taken by surprise. Eight hundred picked men, 
grenadiers and light infantry, from the English army, were no 
doubt considered by General Gage an ample detachment to 
march eighteen or twenty miles through an open country, and 
a very fair match for all the resistance which could be made by 
unprepared husbandmen, without concert, discipline, or leaders. 

A British historian, to paint the terrific aspect of things that 
presented itself to his countrymen, declares that the rebels 
swarmed upon the hills, as if they dropped from the clouds. 
Before the flying troops had reached Lexington, their rout was 
entire. Some of the officers had been made prisoners, some, had 

31 Who was to protect the exposed sides of these pOirties from the fire of 
the American ritlemeu ? 



42 FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION '. 

been killed, and several wounded, and among them the com- 
mander-in-chief, Colonel Smith. The ordinary means of pre- 
serving discipline failed ; the wounded, in chaises and wagons, 
pressed to the front, and obstructed the road ; wherever the 
flanking parties, from the nature of the ground, were forced 
to come in, the line of march was crowded and broken ; the 
ammunition began to fail ; and at length the entire body was 
on a full run. 

" AVe attempted," says a British officer already quoted, ^^to 
stop the men, and form them two deep, but to no purpose ; the 
confusion rather increased than lessened." An English his- 
torian says, the British soldiers were driven before the Ameri- 
cans like sheep ; till, by a last desperate effort, the officers suc- 
ceeded in forcing their way to the front, '^when they presented 
their swords and bayonets against the breasts of their own men, 
and told them, if they advanced, they should die." Upon this, 
they began to form, under what the same British officer pro- 
nounces ^^ a very heavy fire," which must soon have led to the 
destruction or capture of the whole corps. 

At this critical moment a reenforcement arrived. Colonel 
Smith had sent back a messenger from Lexington, to apprise 
General Gage of the check he had there received, and of the 
alarm which was running through the country. Three regiments 
of infantry and two divisions of marines, with two field -pieces,^'* 
under the command of Brigadier-General Lord Percy, were ac- 
cordingly detached. They marched out of Boston, through 
Roxbury and Cambridge, and came up with the flying party in 
the hour of their extreme peril. While their field-pieces kept 
the Americans at bay, the reinforcement drew up in a hollow 
square, into which, says the British historian, they received the 
exhausted fugitives, " who lay down on the ground, with their 
tongues hanging from their mouths, like dogs after a chase." 

A half-hour was given to rest ; the march was then resumed ; 

32 Field-pieces — small cannon such as could be carried aloug with an 
army in rapid march. 



FIRST BATTLES OF THM ItEVOLUTIOK 43 

and, under cover of the field-pieces, every house in Lexington, 
and on the road downwards, was plundered and set on fire. 
Though the flames, m most cases, were speedily extinguished, 
several houses were destroyed. Notwithstanding the attention of 
a great part of the Americans was thus drawn off, and although 
the British force was now more than doubled, their retreat still 
Avore the aspect of a flight. The Americans filled the heights 
that overhung the road, and at every defile the struggle was sharp 
and bloody. 

At West Cambridge, the gallant Warren, never distant when 
danger was to be braved, appeared in the field, and a musket- 
ball soon cut off a lock of hair from Ins temple. General Heath 
was with him ; nor does there appear, till this moment, to have 
been any effective command among the American forces. 

Below West Cambridge, the militia from Dorchester, Eox- 
bury, and Brookline came up. The British field-pieces began to 
lose their terror. A sharp skirmish followed, and many fell on 
both sides. Indignation and outraged humanity struggled on 
the one hand, veteran discipline and desperation on the other ; 
and the contest, in more than one instance, was man to man, and 
bayonet to bayonet. 

The British officers had been compelled to dismount from 
their horses to escape the certain destruction wdiich attended 
their exposed situation. The wounded, to the number of two 
hundred, now presented the most distressing and constantly in- 
creasing obstruction to the progress of the march. Near one 
hundred brave men had fallen in this disastrous flight ; a con- 
siderable number had been made prisoners; a round or two of 
ammunition only remained ; and it was not till late in the even- 
ing, nearly twenty-four hours from the time when the first de- 
tachment was put in motion, that the exhausted remnant reached 
the heights of Charlestown. 

The boats of the vessels of war were immediately employed to 
transport the wounded — the remaining British troops m Boston 
came over to Charlestown, to protect their weary countrymen 



44 



FIRST HATTLES OF THE RFVOLVTION: 



during the night ; and, before the close of the next day, the 
royal army was formally besieged in Boston. 

Such, imperfectly sketched in their outline, were the events 
of the day we celebrate ; a day as important as any recorded in 
the history of man. It is a proud anniversary for our neighbor- 
hood. We have cause for honest complacency, that when the dis- 
tant citizen of our own republic, when the stranger from foreign 
lands, inquires for the spots where the noble blood of the Revolu- 
tion began to flow, where the first battle of that great and glori- 
ous contest was fought, he is guided through the villages of 
Middlesex ^^ to the plains of Lexington and Concord. It is a 
commemoration ^* of our soil, to which ages, as they pass, will 
add dignity and interest; till the names of Lexington and Con- 
cord, in the annals of freedom, will stand by the side of the most 
honorable names in Roman or Grecian story. 

The people always conquer. They always must conquer. 
Armies may be defeated, kings may be overthrown, and new 
dynasties imposed, by foreign arms, on an ignorant and slavish 
race, that care not in what language the covenant of their sub- 
jection runs, nor in whose name the deed of their barter and 
sale is made out. But the people never invade ; and, when they 
rise against the invader, are never subdued. If they are driven 
from the plains, they fly to the mountains. Steep rocks and 
everlasting hills are their castles ; the tangled, pathless thicket 
their palisado, and nature, God, is their ally. Now he over- 
whelms the hosts of their enemies beneath his drifting moun- 
tains of sand ; now he buries them beneath a falling atmosphere 
of polar snows ; he lets loose his tempests on their fleets ; he 
puts a folly into their counsels, a madness into the hearts of their 
leaders ; and never gave, and never will give, a final triumph 
over a virtuous and gallant people, resolved to be free. 



2^ Middlesex — the name of the 
county hi which are situated the 
towns between Boston and Con- 
cord. 



^^ Commemoration implies a call- 
ing to mind of these events, with a 
solemn recognition of their impor- 
tance. 



t'IRST BATTLm OP THE R^VOLVTtON . 45 

Honor to the venerable survivors of that momentous day 
which tried men^s souls. Great is the happiness they are per- 
mitted to enjoy, in uniting, within the compass of their own ex- 
perience, the doubtful sti"uggles and the full-blown prosperity of 
our happy land. May they share the welfare they witness around 
them ; it is the work of their hands, the fruit of their toils, the 
price of their lives freely hazarded, that their children might 
live free. Bravely they dared ; patientl}^ — ay, more than pa- 
tiently — heroically, piously, they suffered ; largely, richly may 
they enjoy. 

But chiefly to those who fell ; to those who stood in the 
breach, at the breaking of that day of blood at Lexington ; to 
those who joined in battle, and died honorably, facing the foe at 
Concord; to those who fell in the gallant pursuit of the flying 
enemy, — let us this day pay a tribute of grateful admiration. 
The old and the young ; the gray-haired veteran, the stripling in 
the flower of youtii ; husbands, fathers, brethren, sons, — they 
stood side by side, and fell together, like the beauty of Israel, on 
their high places. 

We have founded this day a monument to their memory. 
"When the hands that rear it are motionless, when the feeble 
voice is silent, which now speaks our father's praise, the graven 
stone shall bear witness to other ages of our gratitude and their 
worth. And ages still farther on, when the monument itself, 
like those who build it, shall have crumbled to dust, the happy 
aspect of the land which our fathers redeemed shall remain, one 
common, eternal monument to their memory. 



46 



FIRST J^ AT TIES OF THE REVOLVTION. 



The Battle of Bunker Hill. 

The following account of the first great battle of the Revolution has 
])een taken from Mr. Everett's " Onition on the Battle of Bunker Hill, de- 
livered on the 17th of June, 1850, in the ship-house in the Navy Yard in 
Charlestown." It presents with dramatic clearness and vigor and with pa- 
triotic ardor the leading incidents in this most signilicant event. The author 
had carefully examined the most authentic sources of information, includ- 
ing many letters wi-itten shortly after the battle and then recently published. 
A comparison should be made with Mr. Webster's famous masterpiece, the 
oration delivered at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment on the same day twenty-live years before. 

As far as the narrative of events is concerned, the battle of 
Bunker Hill must now be committed to the classical historians 
of the country, to take its fitting place in our anuals. To the 
vigorous and brilliant pen of Bancroft/ which has already re- 
corded the settlement and colonization of the United States, 
and to the accurate and philosophical research of Sparks,' to 
which we are indebted for the lives of Washington and Franklin, 
and the standard editions of their works, we can safely leave the 
great event of this day to find its permanent record in those 
histories of the Revolution wliich they permit us to expect from 
them. 

The importance of tlie battle of Bunker Hill' rests mainly on 



1 George Bancroft (1800- ) : The 
author of the most comprehensive 
and philosophical history of the 
United States. The first volume 
was published in 1834. He has 
written twelve volumes (revised in 
1884-5, in 6 vols.), bringing the his- 
tory dow^n to 1789. 

2 Jared Sparks (1789-1866) is distin- 
guished for his eminent services in 



the investigation of several periods 
of American history. He collected 
and published the wn-itings of Wash- 
ington and Franklin, in 12 vols, 
each. He also wrote a valuable 
series of American Biography in 15 
vols. 

^ It was at first intended to fortify 
Bunker Hill, but "by the advice of 
Engineer Gridley, Breed's Hill was 



FIRST BATTLES OF TMF RFVOLVTtON. 



47 



its consequences. Its influence on the success of the Kevolution 
lifts it up from the level of vulgar gladiatorial contests, and gives 
it a place among those few momentous appeals to arms which 
have affected the cause of liberty and the condition of man for 
ages. But even in itself considered, I know not what element 
of stirring interest is wanting, to make it one of the most extra- 
ordinary events in history. Need I remind you of the solemn 
parade on Cambridge Common at the close of the day on the 
16th of June ; the blessing invoked by the President of the 
University on the yet unannounced expedition ; the silent and 
thoughtful march of the column under the veteran Prescott/ 
preceded by sergeants with dark -lanterns ; the lines marked out 
by Gridley, the same who at Louisburg/ at the third trial, threw 
a shell into the citadel, and who drew the only two field-pieces 
used at the fall of Quebec up the heights of Abraham ; the mid- 
night toil in the trenches; the cry of the sentinel, *^ All's well," 
heard from the British ships ^ moored between Boston and 
Charlestown, by Colonel Prescott and Major Brooks, as, twice 
in the course of that short and anxious night, they went down to 
the water's side? The day dawns and the fire of the "Lively" 
opens on the redoubt. The garrison in Boston, the American 
encampments, the surrounding country, start at the sound. As 
the morning advances, every roof, steeple, tree, and hill-top that 
commands the scene is alive with expectation. At noon, the 
British troops cross in twenty-eight barges from Long Wharf and 



subtituted as ii^-e ehgible for re- 
sisting a BritisljHmding. " — Carring- 
ton's Battles B^lie Revokition. 

4 William Prescott (1726-95) was 
ordered to commaucr, the detach- 
ment by Gen. Ward, at that time 
commander-in chief of the troops 
near Boston. His men were not 
aware of the object of the expedi- 
tion until they reached Charlestown 
Neck. 

5 Louisburg. A fortress on the 



island of Cape Breton, built by the 
French in 1713, and at that time 
one of the most strongly fortified 
places in America It was surren- 
dered to the Americans and English 
June 17, 1745, after a siege of forty- 
eight days. 

^ Five men-of-war and several 
floating batteries were within gun- 
shot. See '* Frothingham's Siege of 
Boston," p. 124. 



48 



PUiSf l^ATTLJSS OF THE RF.VOLVTtON. 



the North Buttery, in Boston ; and as they move, the rays of a 
meridian summer's snn are reflected from burnished arms, gay 
uniforms, and the sparkling waters. A sharp fire from Copp's 

Hill,^ the ships of war, and 
the floating batteries sweeps 
across Charlestown to cover 
the debarkation. 

They land at or near this 
spot, then called Moulton's 
Point and lying in a state of 
nature. The hostile force 
consists of regiments that 
have won laurels at Det- 
tingen ^ and Mind en, led by 
chiefs who had been trained 
in all the wars of Europe. 
It is soon perceived that the 
balls brought over are too 
large for the field-pieces. Sir 
William Howe,® the commander-in-chief, having reconnoitered 
the American lines and formed an exaggerated opinion of their 
strength and of the re-enforcements which were seen to arrive 
from Medford, sends over to Boston for more troops. In the 
interval, his army, awaiting the arrival of the re-enforcements, 
makes a leisurely meal from the contents of their knapsacks. 




' Copp's Hill: A small eminence 
in the North End of Boston, at that 
time fortified, now a burial-place. 

8 Dettingen: A small town on the 
Main, in Germany, near which an 
armj^ of English, Hanoverians, and 
Hessians, under King George II. 
defeated the French in 1743. Min- 
den, a town in Westphalia, about 
three miles from which, the English 
under the Duke of Brunswick de- 



Hole 



feated the Frenchl 

9 Sir William Hole (1729-1814) 
had distiuguished himself at Quebec 
under Gen. Wolfe, and was made a 
major-general in 1773. In May, 
1775, he brought over re-enforce- 
ments for Gen. Gage, and was the 
commander-in-chief on this occa- 
sion, although he was not in sym- 
pathy with the oppressive policy of 
George III. 



nUHT BATTLDS OF THE REVOLVflON'. 



4S 



Far different was the condition of the Americans, who had 
now toiled in throwing np the entrenchments from midnight, 
witliout repose, without adequate supplies, without relief, under 
an incessant cannonade, harassing though not destructive, be- 
neath a summer^s sun. They occupied the redoubt, the spot on 
which the monument is built, and a breastwork leading from it, 
on the northerly slope of the hill, of which the traces still remain. 
About the time when the British army landed, the regiments 
under Stark ^" and Reed arrived from Medford. Stark had 
marched at a leisurely pace over the Neck, beneath the fire of 
the floating batteries, because one fresh man in action (according 
to the observation of Stark, as reported by General Dearborn, to 
whom it was addressed) was better than ten who are exhausted. 
At this time, also, Warren ^^ arrived at the lines, and, without 
assuming the command as major-general, acted to the last as a 
volunteer. Putnam, the only mounted officer in the field, passed 
between Charlestown and headquarters more than once in the 
course of the day, to hasten the re-enforcements. 

At three o'clock the battle began. The British force, in two 
principal columns, moved forward to the attack. The right, 
under the command of Howe, was directed against a position 
which had been taken up on the Mystic River ^' by the Connecti- 



1" General John Stark, of New 
Hampshire (1728-1822). On the 
news of the affair at Lexington he 
hastened to Cambridge and was 
chosen Colonel of the New Hamp- 
shire troops. He rendered valuable 
services in this battle. He was en- 
gaged in the Northern Campaign of 
1777, and was the hero of the battle 
of Bennington. 

" General Warren opposcdthe pro- 
ject of fortifying Breed's Hill, be- 
cause of the scarcity of powder. 
When urged not to expose his per- 
son, he said : "I know that I may 



fall ; but Where's the man who does 
not think it glorious and delightful 
to die for his country?" He gave a 
conspicuous example of unseltish 
patriotism in serving in the ranks, 
although he was offered the com- 
mand by both Prescott and Putnam. 
^' A considerable stream just east 
of Charlestown. It would be a valu- 
able exercise to draw a map of the 
several places mentioned in this de- 
scription. Valuable assistance may 
be obtained from " Carrington's 
Battles of the Revolution." 



50 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE UEVOLVTlOK. 



cut men under Knowlton, detached from the redoubt and sup- 
ported by Stark^s and Reed's re-enforcement ; tlie left was led by 
Pigot directly against the redoubt. The artillery, from Oopp's 
Hill, the ships of war, and the floating batteries, redoubled its 
fire ; and as the hostile troops moved slowly up the hill, they 
halted at intervals to give their field-pieces an opportunity to 
make an impression on the American lines. The American 
force watched unmoved tiiese fearful pauses in the advance of 
the enemy. Their own artillery was of the most inefficient 
description and for the most part feebly served. The men were 
ordered by their officers, both in the redoubt and along the lines, 
to reserve their fire till the enemy was near at hand, when it was 
delivered with such fatal effect that, after a few moments' gal- 
lant resistance, he retreated to the foot of the hill. Such was 
the result of the first attack, both at the redoubt and breast- 
work, and at the rail fence. '^ 

A brief pause succeeds, and the enemy rallies to a second 
attack. Again his forces move in two divisions. The Ameri- 
cans, gaining confidence from their first success, reserve their 
fire with still greater coolness than before, and until the hostile 
force is within six or eight rods. It was then given with propor- 
tionably greater effect. It was vigorously returned from the 
veteran ranks of the enemy ; but, after a brief str\iggle between 
discipline and courage on the one side and the unerring aim of 
the American musket leveled with equal steadiness on the other, 
the royal troops are again compelled to retreat to the foot of the 
hill, and some of the men even take shelter in the boats. 

Thus far the important day had gone with the Americans, 
notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstances under wiiich 



'3 The defences of the Americans 
were iu an iinlinished state. They 
consisted of a redoubt about eight 
rods square, a breastwork extending 
about a hundred yards to the north 
of the redoubt, and a hastily con- 
structed defence consisting of two 



parallel lines of fence, the space be- 
tween them filled with newly cut 
grass. This was the most assailable 
spot. It was against this position 
that Gen. Howe led the right 
wing. 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 



51 



they had contended, the weariness of the sleepless night and of 
eighteen hours^ continuous march, toil, suspense, and conflict ; 
with no refreshment beyond the scanty supply brought with 
them ; and no efficient relief. Had they been adequately sup- 
ported and re-enforced,'" they would no doubt have crowned a 
heroic defense by a final and complete victory. But the decisive 
struggle in the redoubt and at the breastwork remained to be 
made by those who had })orne the heat and burden of the day, 
whose ammunition was now nearly gone, their numbers greatly 
reduced, their strength exhausted. 

Under these circumstances the last great effort was made by 
the enemy. His forces are rallied with some difiiculty for another 
attack. New re-enforcements are brought over from Boston, and 
Sir Henry Clinton, an officer of experience and gallantry, crosses 
with them as a volunteer, and renders the most important ser- 
vices, in leading up the men once more to action. Everything is 
disposed for a final and desperate effort. A demonstration only 
is made against the rail fence, and the main force of the move- 
ment is directed against the redoubt and breastwork. As the 
British army advances, Charlestown '^ is fired by shells from the 
opposite batteries in Boston. The flames catch from building to 
building, till the whole town is on fire. The British field-train 
forces its way through the undefended opening between the rail 
fence and the breastwork, so as to command the interior of the 
redoubt. 

The royal troops, advancing in one column, reserve their fire 
till they reach the entrenchment; and while the conflagration of 
three or four hundred buildings throws a broad sheet of smoke 
and flames across the sky, the redoubt is forced at the point of 



^^ Various reasons are given for 
the faiUu"e to send forward adequate 
reenforcements. " Great confusion 
existed at Cambridge. Gen. Ward 
was not sufficiently supplied with 
staff-officers to bear his orders ; and 
some were neglected and others 



were given incorrectly." — Frothing- 
ham's account, p. 146. 

'* It is said that scattering shots 
had been fired from several houses 
in Charlestown upon the British 
troops. 



52 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION'. 



the bayonet. Few of the American guns are fnrnislied with that 
weapon. Prescott defends himself with his sword against an 
assault with the bayonet, which passes more than once through 
his coat ; the hostile force outnumbers the Americans in the 
redoubt by more than ten to one, probably in twice that pro- 
portion ; and a reluctant order is given to retreat. Among the 
last to quit the redoubt was the lion-hearted Warren/' and the 
first steps of the pursaer were over his dead body. Ages to come 
will weep tears of admiration on the stone which marks the 
spot where he fell. Putnam attempted a rally on Bunker Hill 
(properly so called), bat without success. The power of physical 
endurance was exhausted. No attempt at pursuit was made by 
the royal commander. Sir Henry Clinton strongly urged that 
the dear-bought advantages of the day should be followed up, but 
Howe, with greater prudence, was well content with the posses- 
sion of the field of battle. 

The losses of the two parties attest the severity of this great 
day. On the royal side, the official report acknowledges the loss 
of one thousand and fifty-four killed and wounded — a greater 
number than the entire amount of Prescott's detachment. On 
the American side, according to the official account, one hundred 
and fifteen were killed, three hundred and five were wounded, 
and thirty were made prisoners ; in all four hundred and fifty, a 
greater loss than that of the Grecians at Marathon or Platasa, or 
of Ca3sar at Pharsalia. If General Gage's loose statement of the 
number of his troops in action is correct, one half of his troops 
were killed or wounded.'^ He intrenched himself the next day 



^^ "Not all the havoc and devasta- 
tion they have made has wounded 
me like the death of Warren. We 
want him in the Senate ; we want 
him in his profession; we want him 
in the field. We mourn for the 
citizen, the Senator, the physician, 
and the warrior." — Letter of Mrs. 
Adams, July 5, 1775. 

" The number of troops engaged 



on either side cannot be precisely 
ascertained. Gen. Putnam esti- 
mated the number of Americans to 
be twenty-two hundred ; others do 
not put it higher than fifteen hun- 
dred. According to Frothingham, 
probably not. less than four thou- 
sand British troops were actually 
ens-acred. 



FIKST BATTLES OF THE BEVOLVTION. 53 

on Breed's and Bunker Hill, and from these positions, so long as 
the royal army remained in Boston, it never attempted to advance 
a foot into the country. 

A letter, written a week afterwards, by General Burgoyne 
gives a graphic and animated picture of the battle, which he 
witnessed from Copp's Hill. Among the traits with which he 
heightens the effect of the scene, he mentions the reflection in 
the mind of the spectator that '^defeat was the final loss of the 
British empire in America." It has been debated whether the 
result of the day is, upon the whole, to be accounted a victory or 
a defeat to the British arms.^® If we are permitted to apply 
General Burgoyne's criterion, we may refer to history for the 
settlement of tliat controversy. 

Such was our battle of Marathon ; and not more decisively 
did that contest affect the fortunes of Greece than the character 
of our revolutionary war was affected by the battle of Bunker 
Hill. It put the final seal to that trial of temper and courage 
which commenced on the 19th of April. Alctory or defeat, *Mt 
was the final loss of the British empire to America." 



Report of the Committee of Safety. 

The following narrative of this battle, prepared by order of the Massa- 
chusetts Committee of Safety, is appended as the best contemporaneous ac- 
count of this event, and as also furnishing some additional particulars : 

In Committee of Safety, July 25, 1775. 
In obedience to the order of the Congress, this committee 
have inquii-ed into the premises, and, upon th^ best information 
obtained, find that the commanders of the New England army 
had, about the 14th ult., received advice that General Gage had 
issued orders for a party of the troops under his command to 
post themselves on Bunker's Hill, a promontory just at the 
entrance of the peninsula of Charlestown, whi^-h orders were 

*** It has been well said that it was I of a victory, under the name of a 
•'a victory, with all the moral effect j defeat." 



54 FIMST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION . 

soon to be executed. Upon which it was determined, with the 
advice of this Coirmittee. to send a party who might erect some 
fortification upon the said hill and defeat this design of our ene- 
mies. Accordingly, on the 16th ult., orders were issued that a 
detachment of 1000 men should that evening march to Charles- 
town and intrench upon that hill. Just before nine o'clock they 
left Cambridge, and proceeded to Breed's Hill, situated on the 
farther part of the peninsula next to Boston, for, by some mis- 
take, this hill was marked out for the intrenchment instead of 
the other. Many things being necessary to be done preparatory 
to the intrench ments being thrown up (whicli could not be done 
before, lest the enemy should discover and defeat the design), it 
was nearly twelve o'clock before the works were entered upon. 
They were then carried on with the utmost diligence and alacrity, 
so that by the dawn of the day they had thrown up a small re- 
doubt about eight rods square. At this time a heavy fire began 
from the enemy's ships, a number of floating batteries, and from 
a fortification of the enemy's upon Copp's Hill in Boston, directly 
opposite to our little redoubt. An incessant shower of shot and 
bombs was rained by these upon our works, by which only one 
man fell. The provincials continued to labor indefatigably till 
they had thrown up a small breastwork extending from the east 
side of the redoubt to the bottom of the hill, but were prevented 
completing it by the intolerable fire of the enemy. 

Between twelve and one o'clock, a number of boats and 
barges, filled with the regular troops from Boston, were observed 
approacliing towards Charlestown; these troops landed at a place 
called Moreton's Point, situated a little to the eastward of our 
works. This brigade formed upon their landing, and stood thus 
formed till a second detachment arrived from Boston to join 
them ; having sent out large flank guards, they began a very 
slow march toward our lines. At this instant smoke and flames 
were seen to arise from the town of Chaiiestown, which had been 
set on fire by the enemy that the smoke might cover the attack 
upon our lines, and perhaps with a design to rout or destroy one 
or two regiments of provincials who had been posted in that 



FIRHT BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION: 55 

town. If either of these were their design, they were disap- 
pointed for the wind, shifting on a sudden, carried the smoke 
another way, and the regiments were ah-eady removed. The 
provincials within their intrenchments impatiently awaited the 
attack of the enemy, and reserved their fire till they came within 
ten or twelve rods, and then began a furious discharge of small- 
arms. This fire arrested the enemy, which they for some time 
returned without advancing a step, and then retreated in dis- 
order and with great precipitation to the place of landing, and 
some of them sought refuge even within their boats. Here the 
officers were observed, by the spectators on the opposite shore, to 
run down to them, using the most passionate gestures and push- 
ing the men forward with their swords. At length they were 
rallied, and marched up, with apparent reluctance, towards the 
intrenchment. The Americans again reserved their fire until the 
enemy came within five or six rods, and a second time put the 
regulars to flight, who ran in great confusion towards their boats. 
Similar and superior exertions were now necessarily made by the 
officers, which, notwithstanding the men discovered an almost 
insuperable reluctance to fighting in this cause, were again suc- 
cessful. They formed once more and, having brought some 
cannon to bear in such a manner as to rake the inside of the 
breastwork from one end of it to the other, the provincials 
retreated within their little fort. 

The ministerial army now made a decisive effort. The fire 
from the ships and batteries, as well as from the cannon in front 
of then- army, vv^as redoubled. The officers in the rear of their 
army were observed to goad forward the men with renewed exer- 
tions, and they attacked the redoubt on three sides at once. The 
breastwork on the outside of the fort was abandoned ; the am- 
munition of the provincials was expended, and few of their arms 
were fixed with bayonets. Can it then be wondered that the 
word was given by the commander of the party to retreat? But 
this he delayed till the redoubt was half filled with regulars, and 
the provincials had kept the enemy at bay some time, confront- 
ing them with the butt ends of their muskets, The retreat of 



56 FIRST BATTLES OF THE ItEYOLUTION . 

this little handful of brave men would have been effectually cut 
off had it not happened that the flanking party of the enemy, 
which was to have come upon the back of the redoubt, was 
checked by a party of the provincials, who fought with the 
utmost bravery, and kept them from advancing farther than 
the beach. The engagement of these two parties was kept up 
with the utmost vigor; and it must be acknowledged that this 
party of the ministerial troops evidenced a courage worthy a 
better cause. All their efforts, however, were insufficient to 
compel the provincials to retreat, till their main body had left 
the hill. Perceiving this was done, they then gave ground, but 
with more regularity than could be expected of troops who had 
no longer been under discipline, and many of whom had never 
before seen an engagement. 

In this retreat the Americans had to pass over the Neck, 
which joins the peninsula of Charlestown to the mainland. This 
Neck was commanded by tb.e '^ Glasgow^^ man-of-war and two 
floating batteries, placed in such a manner as that their shot 
raked every part of it. The incessant fire kept up across this 
Neck had, from the beginning of the engagement, prevented any 
considerable re-enforcements from getting to the provincials on 
the hill, and it was feared it would cut off their retreat, but they 
retired over it with little or no loss. 

With a ridiculous parade of triumph, the ministerial troops 
again took possession of the hill which had served them as a 
retreat in flight from the battle of Concord. It was expected 
that they would prosecute the supposed advantage they had 
gained, by marching immediately to Cambridge, which was 
distant but two miles, and which was not then in a state of 
defense. This they failed to do. The wonder excited by such 
conduct soon ceased when, by the best accounts from Boston, we 
are told that, of 3000 men who marched out upon this expedition, 
no less than 1500 (92 of which were commissioned officers) were 
killed or wounded, and about 1200 of them either killed or 
mortally wounded. Such a slaughter was perhaps never before 
made upon British troops in the space of about an hour, during 



FIRST BATTLES OF THE MEVOLUTIOK 57 

which the heat of the engagement lasted, by about 1500 men, 
which were the most that were any time engaged on the Ameri- 
can side. 

The loss of the New England army amounted, according to 
an exact return, to 145 killed and missing, and 304 wounded; 
thirty of the first were wounded and taken prisoners by the 
enemy. Among the dead was Major-general Joseph Warren, a 
man whose memory will be endeared to his countrymen and to 
the worthy in every part and age of the world, so long as virtue 
and valor shall be esteemed among mankind. The heroic 
Colonel Gardner, of Cambridge, has since died of his wounds ; 
and the brave Lieutenant-colonel Parker, of Chelmsford, who 
was wounded and taken prisoner, perished in Boston jail. These 
three, with Major Moore and Major M'Clary, who nobly strug- 
gled in the cause of their country, were the only officers of 
distinction which we lost. Some officers of great worth, though 
inferior in rank, were killed, whom we deeply lament. But the 
officers and soldiers in general who were wounded are in a fair 
way of recovery. The town of Charlestown, the buildings of 
which were in general large and elegant, and which contained 
effects belonging to the unhappy sufferers in Boston to a very 
great amount, was entirely destroyed; and its chimneys and 
cellars now present a j)rospect to the Americans exciting an 
indignation in their bosoms which nothing can appease but the 
sacrifice of those miscreants who have introduced horror, desola- 
tion, and havoc into these once happy abodes of liberty, peace, 
and plenty. 

Though the officers and soldiers of the ministerial army 
meanly exult in having gained this ground, yet they cannot but 
attest to the bravery of our troops and acknowledge that the 
battles of Fontenoy and Minden, according to the numbers 
engaged and the time the engagement continued, were not to 
be compared with this ; and, indeed, the laurels of Minden were 
totally blasted in the battle of Charlestown. The ground pur- 
chased thus dearly by the British troops affords them no advan- 
tage against the American army, now strongly intrenched on a 



58 FIRST BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION . 

neighboring eminence. The Continental troops, nobly animated 
from the justice of their cause, sternly urge to decide the contest 
by the sword; but we wish for no further diffusion of blood if 
the freedom and peace of America can be secured without it : 
but if it must be otherwise, we are determined to struggle. We 
disdain life without liberty. 

Britons ! be wise for yourselves before it is too late, and 
secure a commercial intercourse with the American colonies 
before it is forever lost ; disarm your ministerial assassins, put 
an end to this unrighteous and unnatural war, and suffer not any 
rapacious despot to amuse you with the unprofitable ideas of 
your right to tax and officer the colonies till the most profitable 
and advantageous trade you have is irrecoverably lost. Be wise 
for yourselves, and the Americans will contribute to and rejoice 
in your prosperity. 

J. Palmer, per order. 



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